Mothers publish latest South Shore Mom’s & Dad’s Guide

This month a pair of local moms published the seventh annual edition of their South Shore guide, a free publication that lists parent resources and over 1,200 activities for children 6 and under.

Edward B. Colby

At the end of a 45-minute interview, Carol Cady and Jessica Spencer shared a few laughs about how they had just discussed their South Shore “Mom’s & Dad’s Guide” inside and out and “were talking on top of each other,” as Cady put it.

“That’s the thing,” Cady said. “We are still enthusiastic and passionate about it, all these years later.”

They have reason to be: This month the pair of local moms published the seventh annual edition of their South Shore guide, a free publication they first published in 2002 that lists parent resources and more than 1,200 activities for children 6 and under in 17 area towns.

In April they published their first Metro South “Mom’s & Dad’s Guide” for towns along routes 24 and 95. The “Mom’s & Dad’s Guide” also became the title sponsor for two kids’ expos in Kingston and Canton this year.

Not bad for a pair of stay-at-home moms who met in a playgroup at the Marshfield MOMs Club in 1999 and decided there was a need for a parents’ resource publication on the South Shore.

“It’s like a mini-phonebook for parents,” Spencer said of the 2008-2009 guide, which includes sections for activities, birthdays, camps, sports and “family fun.”

The guide has been updated yearly since 2002.

“It still amazes me that people can say to us ‘Do you know of such-and-such a place?’ and we’ve never heard of it,” Cady said.

Cady, of Marshfield, has two kids – Jack, 10, and Emma, 7 – while Pembroke resident Spencer is a mother of three – Tyler, 9, Colby, 6, and Brady, 3.

They have drawn on Cady’s experience in publishing and fundraising and Spencer’s background in psychology in their work on the free guides, which generate revenue through advertising.

Roughly 25,000 copies of both the South Shore and Metro South guides are distributed to locations such as recreation departments, libraries and kid-oriented businesses.

While both contribute to sales, research and creating a distribution list, Cady focuses on production, with Spencer editing for the guides and an accompanying Web site, www.momsanddadsguide.com.